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Is your business as easy to operate as it
could be? Is everything as efficient as it can be? I can tell that you’re
thinking, "What got you started on this one?"
Horse manure.
Horse manure?
Horse manure!
Since we live in the mountains, the
turnout area for our horses is not level by any stretch of the
imagination: it is roughly the shape of an amphitheater with the barn at
the lowest point. I was, uh, "picking up" after the horses,
which involves walking around with a "manure fork" (which looks
like a pitch fork), scooping up the piles, and dumping them into a plastic
barrel that I pull around in a little two-wheeled caddy. As you can
imagine, the barrel begins to get pretty heavy after a while, and pulling
it up the slopes becomes a chore. But… it would be much easier if I
cleared the highest points first and then worked my way down. That way, I
haul an empty barrel up the hill and, as it gets heavier, gravity will
help me out as I work my way down. It’s a perfect solution that takes no
extra time.
Pretty obvious, huh?
Whenever we feed the horses they get
pretty riled up and anxious to eat, and start pawing and banging while we
measure out the proper amounts. But… if we prepare the food in advance
we can feed them as soon as we get there. Then we prepare the next meal
while they are eating that one. It’s a perfect solution that takes no
extra time.
Pretty obvious, huh?
The copies come out of our copier face up.
That means that if we copy a 10-page document, we have to manually
rearrange the copies because page 10 is on top instead of page 1. But…
if we copy the pages in the reverse order, they come out just the way we
want them to. It’s a perfect solution that takes no extra time.
Pretty obvious, huh?
The fact is that all of these solutions
are pretty obvious; AFTER WE’VE COME UP WITH THEM, THAT IS! Solving
problems is a tricky business because it’s just too darned easy to
accept things the way they are. For years, I just accepted the fact that
it was a pain in the neck to make a multi-page copy on our copier. It
never occurred to me that this was an inconvenience that was
"fixable". As I recall, I literally slapped myself on the
forehead and said "Duh!" when I realized that there was a better
way. The first step in solving a problem, then, is realizing that you have
one to solve.
What little annoyances to you put up with
every day? Little annoyances are distracting and can actually lead to big
problems because they take your mind away from your goals. Anything you
can do to make your life easier is probably worth doing. Are you sure that
these things are just that: annoyances? Maybe they are really little
problems that can be solved with a little thought and creativity. Wouldn’t
it be nice to eliminate some of them so you can focus on what’s really
important?
Making things easier is hard work. But it’s
worth it.
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